The term Matthew effect was cooined by the Columbia University sociologist Robert K. Merton (1968a) to refer to the commonly observed tendency, noted above, for initial advantages to accumulate through time . . . In his pioneering studies of prestige systems in scientific communities, Merton demonstrated that prestigious scientists and institutions tend to attract inordinate attention and resources, leading to the further accumulation of prestige, which in turn attracts further resources (Daniel Rigney, The Matthew Effect: How Advantage Begets Further Advantage (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), 4).

The term has come to be used of occasions where a piece of research, an idea, a quotation, a story gets associated with a more famous, more prominent person. It is called the "Matthew effect" because of Matt. 13.12, "For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away."

Now what I find delightful about this terminology is that it inadvertently contains within it an example of the very phenomenon it is describing. Matthew has been, since the early second century, the most popular Gospel, the Church's Gospel, and when people quote something that's in more than one Gospel, they invariably quote from Matthew.

So a saying that originates in Mark's Gospel (Mark 4.25),* which most scholars rightly take to have been written prior to Matthew, is actually remembered better as a saying in Matthew. It is not the Mark Effect but the Matthew Effect. The better known, more prominent Gospel lends its name to the feature that is thereby illustrated.

"The Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, answered, ‘Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.’"

"This quote, printed over a photograph of the Dalai Lama, is floating around on Facebook. It is inspiring millions of simple-minded Facebookers — but there’s a problem. HE NEVER SAID IT! There is no record of the Dalai Lama ever saying this and on his website there is no mention of it. Devout followers of the Dalai Lama say it is not true, but we live in the day where all one needs to do is put something up on Facebook and it becomes the law of the land — at least where idiots are concerned."

I am no expert on the Dalai Lama but the case presented by the Damien Zone sounds plausible, and certainly a good deal more plausible than the simple pasting of a quotation next to the picture of the Dalai Lama.

Now of course if the Dalai Lama did not say that, how might the analogy help us with historical Jesus research? Or any research into great figures of the past? Misattributions of quotations to Winston Churchill are famous and even in our own area, there is a great misattribution of a saying to Schweitzer (about looking into the well) that was actually said by George Tyrrell.

I must admit that the ease with which misattribution like this can happen within someone's lifetime, as well as not long after their death, reminds us of just how perilous it is to build a picture of the historical Jesus that crudely assumes historicity for sayings material, screening the Gospel sayings and parsing them down to the nth degree to find nuances in what he said.

Imagine the historical Dalai Lama scholar in two thousand years with this multiply attested saying that emerges during the great man's own life time. What if the dissenting voices like the Damien Zone's get lost but the apparent witnesses to the saying remain? Every now and then a helpful analogy comes along to remind us how precarious the task of historical Jesus research can be.

Monday, October 10, 2011

It's official -- Bart Ehrman is "something of a superman when it comes to scriptural studies", at least according to a review of his co-edited volume, with Zlatko Plese, The Apocryphal Gospels, in the LA Times, with thanks to Jim Davila for the link.

A former student of mine, Jon Rainey (MA Religion, Duke, 2009), has put together an excellent bibliographic essay on Jesus films, ideal for those who require a little guidance on this topic. It reminds me that I really ought to resurrect my Jesus Film pages.

Sunday, October 09, 2011

The Guardian published its obituary of C. K. Barrett last week. It is written by Robert Morgan who describes him, alongside C. H. Dodd, as "the greatest British New Testament scholar of the twentieth century":

There is one thing I have been able to keep up with while I have been away and that is the issue of the Jordan Lead Codices. I have been privileged to be among those bloggers who have been discussing this issue and I have been cheering from the sidelines while some really great work has been taking place, explaining clearly and decisively why the evidence demonstrates that these are fake. Now Steve Caruso has gathered the key information together in one place:

Saturday, October 08, 2011

So what's everyone been up to while I've been away? On these occasions, I like to turn to the Biblioblog Carnivals, and I am not disappointed this time. Over on Scotteriology, there are two carnivals, "the lesser" and "the greater":

I must admit that I don't know / can't remember / can't work out who is behind Scotteriology, and the about page doesn't help me much, but many thanks for helping those, like me, who have not been around the blogs at all in September and can catch up with such an entertaining digest.

Far too many of my analogies and digressions in class are drawn from British culture, so it's always nice when I can point to something like this. On Thursday this week, we were talking about Matthew's Gospel and we were looking at his redaction of the story of the woman with a haemorrhage (Matt. 9.18-26 // Mark 5.21-43 // Luke 8.40-56), and the note that she touched not just his garment but "the hem" of his garment, Matt. 9.20, a minor agreement with Luke 8.44. It reminded me of one of my favourite old gospel tracks, Sam Cooke's "Touch the Hem of His Garment". If you are not familiar with the track, it is a classic. Here is a nice youtube version with some fan-added images: